The Volunteer Church: Mobilizing Your Congregation for Growth and Effectiveness

Book Review: The Volunteer Church: Mobilizing Your Congregation for Growth and Effectiveness by Leith Anderson and Jill Fox.

This book is packed with detailed ideas and storytelling from personal experience. The writing style is analytical with identification of problems and solutions to common volunteer challenges. Many biblical references support the volunteer structures outlined in the book.

This is a terrific book for anyone leading a local church, parachurch, or ministry. A wealth of wisdom is tucked into each chapter for recruiting, training, managing, and terminating volunteers. I’ve read several books on the subject and so far, this is the best one yet! The authors repeatedly emphasize exploring the spiritual gifts and adjusting the volunteer into positions where the gift are magnified. A reward system is outlined for thank volunteers- beyond the usual coffee mugs and annual thank-you lunch.

Many levels of volunteer placements are discussed as examples- from the youth ministry, ushers ministry, Bible camps, and small groups. It’s a well-rounded point of discussion from the experience of senior church leadership teams.

The Volunteer Church was developed out of the ministry of Leith Anderson at Wooddale Church in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, where a vital and vibrant volunteer program boasting 4,000 participants grew under the leadership of Jill Fox. The principles and training have been applied in churches of all sizes and denominations in seminar settings across the country as well as at Wooddale Church.

In The Volunteer Church, leaders will

Learn how to effectively recruit and train volunteers

Discover how to build sustainable, long-lasting ministries led by volunteers

Find methods for encouraging and maintaining your volunteers for success

Know how to build teams of volunteers

Understand how to find the right service that fits a willing volunteer

By the time I finished the book I was so excited I immediately contacted our Womens Bible Cafe™ leadership team and asked them read it too! Together we are mapping out a plan for our volunteer team based on the Intel gathered from this valuable book. We were able to identify areas of strength and weakness in our existing program and create an action plan for future growth and development.

As a ministry director, I am exceptionally grateful to the authors for writing this resource handbook. It has already been beneficial to our team and is a handbook we’ll continue using in the future.

Favorite Quotes:

Religious organizations led the list of volunteering opportunities…at their core, churches are volunteer organizations.

Volunteering is one of the primary ways we become Christ-like.

The volunteer church is more than a slogan or a nice book title. It is God’s design, and it’s the biblical pattern.

About the Author: Leith Anderson serves as president of the National Association of Evangelicals. For thirty-five years he was the pastor of Wooddale Church in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. He is a graduate of both Denver Seminary and Fuller Theological Seminary.